Diary of a Dying Nation (@DiaryofaDyingNation)

Spiced Cranberry & Chocolate Tart *Chocolate? Tick. Rich, but not so rich that you can’t have another slice? Tick. This tart will be first to disappear from your* *This tart ticks a lot of boxes. A chocolate-based dessert for the festive season, as well as one that’s pretty enough to take centre stage, but not so rich that you can manage only one slice. Puddles of spiced cranberry sauce are baked into the chocolate frangipane for a pairing that puts any surfeit of cranberries to good use. Get ahead by making the sauce and pastry beforehand, then finish it all off on the day you serve.* For the cranberry sauce: 300g fresh cranberries, or frozen and defrosted 100g caster sugar Juice of ½ orange 1 cinnamon stick 2 star anise ½ tsp. ground ginger For the pastry: 175g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 30g cocoa powder 40g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting ¼ tsp. salt 130g cold unsalted butter, diced 1 large egg yolk For the frangipane: 130g softened unsalted butter 130g caster sugar Zest of 1 small orange 2 large eggs 35g cocoa powder 130g ground almonds ½ tsp. cinnamon ¼ tsp. ground cloves ¼ tsp. salt 1 T. cacao nibs Cream, to serve Put all the ingredients for the cranberry sauce in a small saucepan on a medium heat and cook for 5 - 7 minutes, until the cranberries are soft and syrupy. Set aside to cool completely. To make the pastry, put the flour, cocoa, icing sugar, salt and butter in a food processor and blitz to a fine breadcrumb consistency. Add the egg yolk and a teaspoon of water, and pulse until the mix starts to clump; if it still looks a bit dry, add another teaspoon of water. Turn out on to a clean work surface and use your hands to knead it gently. Bring it all together, pat into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for two hours, or until firm. Heat the oven to 350°F. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface and use it to line a 23cm tart tin with a 1cm overhang all around the rim, then put in the freezer for 10 min. Use a sharp knife to trim off the excess pastry, then line the tart with a sheet of greaseproof paper. Fill with baking beans or uncooked rice, then blind bake for 25 min. Lift out the paper and the beans or rice, bake for a further 10 min, then take out of the oven and leave to cool. Meanwhile, make the frangipane. Cream the butter, sugar and orange zest in a bowl until smooth, then beat in the eggs. Pour in the cocoa, almonds, spices and salt, and stir well to combine. Spoon the mixture evenly into the pastry shell. Use the back of a spoon to make some dips in the surface of the filling, and fill them with about half the cranberry sauce in total. Scatter over the cacao nibs, then bake for 25-30 min, or until there’s no wobble in the middle. Leave the tart to cool completely, then release from the tin and dust with icing sugar, if you like. Serve with more cranberry sauce and a splash of cold cream. #Cake! #Christmas #SpicedCranberryChocolateTart https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/dec/03/spiced-cranberry-chocolate-tart-recipe-benjamina-ebuehi